Recruiting for diversity in tech - Laine Campbell

1. Recruiting for Diversity in Tech
Presented by: Laine Campbell
April 30, 2014

2. Key Points
● Challenging the Meritocracy
● Review the interviewing process
● Have, and enforce, a code of conduct
● A consistent and vocal message
● Reaching out to other communities

3. Challenging the Meritocracy
“governance by those who have skills and ability”
reinforces privilege, by ignoring it and gives power to the majority without
encouraging diversity

4. Challenging the Meritocracy
“governance by those who have skills and ability”
The Pro-Meritocracy Arguments
Anyone can get in, progress and be heard. As long as they are good
enough…
Hard work is rewarded, much like the lessons we all learned growing up...

6. Challenging the Meritocracy
“governance by those who have skills and ability”
The Pro-Meritocracy Argument Rebuttals
Anyone can get in, progress and be heard. As long as they are good
enough…
And the self-confidence to demonstrate their skills publicly and to demand
recognition for it.
This is found most often in white, middle and upper class men.

7. Challenging the Meritocracy
“governance by those who have skills and ability”
The Pro-Meritocracy Argument Rebuttals
Hard work is rewarded, much like the lessons we all learned growing up...
What I learned being working class, cajun and southern is not what you
learned. Add race, being lgbtq, disabled etc.. and you cannot expect
shared experience.

9. Don’t speak out to avoid notice.
Don’t seem like competition.
Ambition is unattractive.
They will assume…
They will judge…

10. Challenging the Meritocracy
“governance by those who have skills and ability”
What else?
Accept contributions that are less than perfect. Diversity creates
collaboration.
Offer roles to those who don’t ask. Dive into their goals and aspirations.
Call out the success of the quiet ones. Encourage peer congratulations.
Create anonymous submission channels. Lead by example.

11. Further Reading
● FLOSSPOLS, sexism, and why meritocracy really isn't (Nerdchic)
● Questioning the merit of meritocracy (Geek Feminism blog)
● Geeks, meritocracy, and gender (Scientist Carrie)
● Where meritocracy fails (Selena Deckelmann)

12. The Interview Process
Interview Questions
The face of the Company - Who do they speak to?
Bring up diversity and culture
What environment do you create?

13. The Interview Process
The questions you ask in interviews matter!
do not reinforce the boys club by asking heavily gendered questions
centered on video games, superheroes, scifi.
yes, these are topics women can enjoy, but they are predominantly the
realm of the young, the male and the heterosexual.
causes self-selection out by candidates turned off by such environments
minimizes abilities of those not informed of the question’s paradigms (like
standardized tests)

15. The Interview Process
The face of the company - recruiting
assemble a diverse group to give input on what the ideal candidate is
select for the whole person: analyze past one or two contributing factors
to success: what about adversity? collaboration? Open-mindedness?
avoid making a big deal about a person’s diversity, it can lead to
tokenizing, hiring people who are not good fits and setting them up to fail
recognize when you are asking a person to “step up” because their
background is different enough that you must set the bar higher

16. The Interview Process
The face of the company - recruiting
avoid gut instinct. if uncomfortable, particularly with someone different,
question! sleep on it. reevaluate.
do not seek to replicate yourself - common interests become impossible
to maintain in medium to large orgs. focus on values, not homogeneity
keep the personal conversations out of it! this is business, and personal
dives can distract, shift views from the core needs and cause discomfort

17. The Interview Process
further reading
● Dropbox's hiring practices (Venturebeat)
● 10 hiring and interviewing tips for diversity (Verna Myers Consulting Group)
● Wanted: More Women Coders at Etsy (Forbes)

18. The Code of Conduct
define acceptable behavior for your organization
who it applies to (staff, contractors, guests, customers)
define unacceptable behaviors (intimidation, harassment, abuse,
discrimination, derogatory and demeaning behaviors)
and targeted communities (race, lgbtq, women, disabled, reproductive
status, age, citizenship, national origin)
encourage everyone to participate, and discuss expectations,
enforcement and impact

19. How to get it out there
put it on your webpage
reference it in github, on sales collateral, on event promotions
include it in your guidebooks
share it with potential employees
remember - this models behavior for similar organizations, as well as your
own staff

20. Reaching Out
you can’t expect normal channels to bring diversity to you
look for diverse coders and technologists on twitter, github,
stackoverflow, linkedin, quora, etc...
participate in targeted events (lgbt meetups, transh4ck, lesbians who
tech)
invite diverse individuals to speak at your own meetups and techtalks
encourage via scholarship, internships and sponsorships

21. Github
https://github.com/pyladies/pyladies
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Women-In-Technology-sponsored-
EMC-1001387
Quora
http://www.quora.com/Women-in-Technology-1

22. blackbird.io
blackbird.io/code-of-conduct
http://www.linkedin.com/company/blackbirdio
laine@blackbirdit.com